Photo courtesy of The Art Institutes
Spaulding graduate Kathryn Nelson, shown in Times Square in New York City, proudly holds her award check for half her tuition to New England Institute of Art which she won in a national Passion for Fashion competition put on by The Art Institutes.

ROCHESTER — An innate knack for sensing future fashion trends came in handy for local teen Kathryn Nelson. The 18-year-old graduate of Spaulding High School won a national Passion for Fashion competition through The Art Institutes, earning herself more than half the cost of tuition to the New England Institute of Art as well as a trip to New York City in which she toured the Seventeen magazine offices.

Nelson has been into fashion for as long as she can remember. She recalled signs of the passion in her early artwork, when she would clothe her stick figures in her own designs.

“When I was younger I knew I was interested and I kind of had an upper hand in fashion in that I understood it as more than just putting clothes together,” said Nelson.

“To me, fashion is the way someone can express his or herself through clothes, just their overall being, who they are. You can create a look and portray different things,” said Nelson.

She decided in her senior year that she would go to school for her passion. She applied and was accepted through early admission to The Art Institutes. Over the winter, she received literature on the school and discovered the Passion for Fashion competition.

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Photo courtesy of The Art Institutes
Kathryn Nelson’s winning entry, which she submitted in February, was a fashion board on an up and coming trend in which she featured 1950s florals.

She recalled having little faith in her chances to win a nationwide competition on fashion. “I never expected to get anything from it,” said Nelson.

Winning the competition restored her faith in herself. “It made me feel more comfortable going into this year, like it’s right that I’m going into this major. It kind of proved to me that I can do this,” she said.

To win the competition, Nelson was required to design a trend board on a future fashion trend. Her entry, which she submitted in February, was entitled “Florals in the Fifties,” and forecast the return of 1950s-style floral dresses.

“I noticed celebrities like Taylor Swift were going back to the longer style dresses,” she said of how she predicted the spring trend. She explained that minidresses were fading. “Its going back to a more conservative look,” she added, stating that pastels and floral patterns were on the rise.

She said it was “pretty awesome” watching her predictions come true over the spring as she waited to hear back from the competition.

Over the spring she was notified she won preliminaries, followed by taking top place at regionals, and finally, just days after marching across the stage at the Spaulding graduation, she won the national competition in the category of fashion marketing and merchandising and retail management.

Her submission was judged by a prestigious panel of fashion’s elite, including a Project Runway winner, a buyer for Armani Exchange, and a former Ralph Lauren design consultant, among others.

With prizes of each win, came tuition funding. By the end, Nelson said she was awarded about $110,000, all of her degree costs and a sizable chunk of her room and board.

“Everyone has college loans but it makes it less stressful,” said Nelson, who anticipates minimal loans when she combines the fund her parents saved for her with the scholarship.

Her prize package also included a trip to New York City in which she, along with fellow winner Max Benitez of Texas who won the category of fashion design for a black gown with leather and lace features, traveled to Times Square with their families for a VIP trip.

Together they toured the Seventeen magazine offices, had a meet and greet and luncheon with the magazine’s style professional, and went on a shopping spree.

“We met the winner of this competition from two years ago and she’s working for Seventeen now. That was pretty cool to see how successful past winners are,” said Nelson.

“We went through the whole building, even the beauty closet,” she said of the once in a lifetime experience. “It was cool to see. They were pulling out all the red nail polishes for fall and now it’s in the magazine,” she said of her August trip to the city.

Her favorite part of the trip was the shopping spree, in which she and Benitez were each awarded $500 gift cards to DKNY and $500 for spending anywhere.

“I think the shopping part was so much fun,” she said. She took several items home but a sweater with leather detailing was her favorite item. “It’s a staple,” she said of the fall look. She also predicted leather will be big in the coming season. She said leather accents are getting big.

Throughout the trip she was followed by photographers and videographers and is expected to be featured in Seventeen magazine, though a date has not yet been set.

Nelson, who started school last week at the New England Institute of Art in Boston, said she is looking forward to her hands-on curriculum and small classes.

“I’m most excited about living in Boston. It’s so different than up here. It’s a great place to be especially with my major,” said Nelson.

The Spaulding alum said, “it’s hard coming from a small town and making something big of yourself.”

She recommends others, “try to expand the most you can and look for opportunities to get your name out there. Keep pushing to your dream of being bigger than you are.”